Site links contractors, customers

One of the Orange County Business Accelerator's enterprises in incubation aims to spread the word about finding reliable companies for renovation and building projects.

James Walsh

One of the Orange County Business Accelerator's enterprises in incubation aims to spread the word about finding reliable companies for renovation and building projects.

If it sounds like Angie's List, it is; consumers can also comment about their experiences on connectedcontractors.com. But it's different in that contractors can recommend companies they've done business with, too. The site also offers space for companies to showcase their history and experience in the field, as well as display coupons and advertisements.

The ideas behind the business date back more than a dozen years, when Jim Wagner looked into franchising his family's business, the Estate Window Cleaning Co., which he operates in Warwick.

Along the way, Wagner said, research into business operations led to the conclusion that there was a market for another company, one dedicated to connecting contractors with customers and vice versa.

Consumers use the site for free, while businesses pay rates based on the services they need and their number of employees.

Services for contractors include a variety of software applications for business tasks, including a cloud-based customer-management platform, sales forecasting, project proposal writing, and work scheduling.

The company has several hundred business members, and a typical month brings 800 to 1,000 unique visitors to its website.

Q: How did researching the possibility of franchising your window-cleaning business evolve into connectedcontractors.com?

A: When we started to build the infrastructure we needed, we realized pretty quickly that the tools we were building could benefit others, and it should be its own business.

Q: A dozen years is a long time spent starting a business. What's kept you at it?

A: I believe in the overall mission of what we're trying to accomplish. Time spent on account management is lost time. There's a lot you can do to reduce the day-to-day thing.

Q: Could it have gotten where it is more quickly?

A: Had we taken on an investor early on, that would have speeded up the process. But we were in a trial-and-error phase for a long time. We were constantly refining what we were doing. But there's less stress, more freedom than if you have investors. You have the freedom to go wherever the road takes you.